The majority of job seekers report that raising the minimum wage to keep pace with the cost of living would be good for them personally. In fact, ten times as many job seekers report that minimum-wage increases would be good for their lives (66.5 percent) than report that it would be bad for their lives (6.5 percent). By a seven-to-one margin, they think it would be good (71.0 percent), rather than bad (10.1 percent), for America overall.

Here are the details. The data come from the American National Election Survey collected in December 2011 (ANES EGSS3 preliminary), which surveyed a nationally-representative sample of 1315 Americans including 126 job seekers. Job seekers are those currently not working and looking for work as well as those working part time but who would prefer full-time work. Using post-stratification weights among respondents, here are the questions and results.

Proposal: Raise the minimum wage every year to keep pace with inflation.

Would this be good, bad, or neither good nor bad for you personally?

Responses

Percentage

Cumulative

Extremely good

28.0

28.0

Moderately good

23.1

51.1

A little good

15.4

66.5

Neither good nor bad

27.1

93.6

A little bad

3.7

97.2

Moderately bad

2.8

100.0

Extremely bad

0.0

100.0

Would this be good, bad, or neither good nor bad for the country?

Responses

Percentage

Cumulative

Extremely good

31.0

31.0

Moderately good

14.1

45.1

A little good

25.9

71.0

Neither good nor bad

19.0

90.0

A little bad

2.2

92.1

Moderately bad

5.2

97.3

Extremely bad

2.7

100.0

Knowing that job-seekers—those with among the most to lose if opponents of increasing the minimum wage were correct in predicting job-loss—so clearly favor increasing the minimum wage to help workers keep up with inflation should matter to policy makers. Instead of listening only to talking heads speaking in the name of job-seekers, let’s hear the voices of job-seekers themselves.

Aaron Sojourneris a labor economist at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.

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EPI is an independent, nonprofit think tank that researches the impact of economic trends and policies on working people in the United States. EPI’s research helps policymakers, opinion leaders, advocates, journalists, and the public understand the bread-and-butter issues affecting ordinary Americans.